Zoo, Louis MacNeice’s neglected treasure, is hidden no longer

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The scene is London Zoo; a little girl and her grandfather are pausing
for refreshment. Grandfather: “The zoo’s a very tiring place.” Little Girl:
“Yes, it’s like Harrods.” The conversation was overheard
by the poet Louis MacNeice, and originally published in 1938 in Zoo,
a wonderful book of observations about Regent’s Park’s famous menagerie:
though the book itself has been rather a neglected treasure. Neglected no
longer, because it can be ordered through the excellent Faber Finds, and
comes complete with its original evocative illustrations by Nancy Sharp,
with whom MacNeice had begun an affair after moving to London in